The Regional Assistant Secretary of the Presidency for External Relations stated in Ponta Delgada that political and economic coordination among the archipelagos of Macaronesia is "fundamental."
 
"We have made very a significant progress in terms of political coordination, fostering a project aimed at integration of the people, culture, transport and economy," said Rui Bettencourt. He spoke at the end of the meeting of the Technical Monitoring Committee of the Conference of Macaronesian Governments (CGM), underlining that this may allow the Azores to "have a much broader vision of what Macaronesia is and, above all, to foster the complementarity of economic systems."
 
For the government official, there is "a very important reality in Macaronesia." In this regard, he highlighted the fact that its population represents a total of 3.5 million inhabitants, while the population in the Azores is estimated to be 250 thousand. The Azores will become part of a "much wider space," not only geographically but also in terms of markets, hence the importance of coordination and complementarity among Macaronesian archipelagos.
 
This first meeting of the Technical Commission, which was presided over by Rui Bettencourt, took place following the Second Macaronesian Archipelago Summit that took place in the Azores in June. Currently, the Region holds the Presidency of the Conference of Macaronesian Governments.
 
"At this meeting, we have decided on a number of important matters," said the government official. According to him, "we have shared four areas of major importance for Macaronesia in coming years"; each archipelago will be responsible for coordinating and promoting these areas.
 
In the case of the Azores, the Region will be responsible for the areas of Research, Development, Energy and Climate Change. In turn, the areas related to the Economy of the Sea, Trade Promotion, Tourism and Investment, Youth, Culture and Citizenship were assigned to the other archipelagos of Macaronesia: Cape Verde, the Canary Islands and Madeira. The coordination of these areas is based on a rotating system for the period of years, as is the case of the CGM presidency.